


dancing the pain away

by kocuria



Series: The Value of Time [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Awesome Shuri (Marvel), Blankets, Bucky Barnes Dances, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dancing, Family Fluff, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hair Braiding, Hurt/Comfort, Male-Female Friendship, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Recovery, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Wakanda (Marvel), background stucky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-04-21 21:16:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22114414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kocuria/pseuds/kocuria
Summary: Bucky lifts his head, looking around blearily. "I'm pretty sure I'm the most feeble thing in this room, and none of you are innocent enough to be called maidens." Shuri starts fiddling with his hair again, and he smiles blissfully, closing his eyes. "Not playing fair, Princess. What did I just agree to?"A series of dance-centered drabbles showcasing Bucky and Shuri's friendship, set between 'The Power of Five Seconds' and 'Time is a Metaphor'.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Shuri, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: The Value of Time [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1416133
Comments: 11
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CrushedRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrushedRose/gifts).

> Well, Bucky & Shuri are pretty much my brOTP, so this absolutely had to happen... and I've been obsessed with Wakandan dance style ever since Black Panther.  
  
For some context: in 'The Power of Five Seconds' Bucky slowly self-destructs after the events of Endgame. After a breakdown, he goes to Wakanda to recover under tender, loving care of Shuri & Co. These drabbles all happen during chapter 1 of 'Time is a Metaphor' - I've got 5 of them outlined, but we'll see when and where the plot bunnies lead me...  
  
Unrequited stucky drama is very much the fuel for Bucky's problems here, but Steve himself will not be making an appearance in these. He does in other parts of the series though!

[May]

Shuri sees Bucky sneak into the room like he's hoping nobody will notice him - fat chance, the hulking mass of pale muscle that he is. Luckily she's already talked to the others and they know not to make a big deal out of his presence. She's afraid he'll spook like a baby deer if they say anything - the two weeks he's spent in Wakanda he's been hugging the walls, making himself as small as possible; staring absently into the distance, unless specifically prompted into a conversation, and even then answering in monosyllables. To say Mother's worried is an understatement, but both she and T'Challa trust Shuri's judgment when it comes to the care and keeping of White Wolves.

She's been badgering him about coming here practically since he arrived - it was actually part of the plan all along, a scheme suggested by Wanda based on some conversations they've had about... that weird white people dance that nobody does anymore. Yet another way her Brother is a man out of time. Well, time to rectify that - and when in Wakanda, dance as the Wakandans do. Good thing the Dora have included her in their dance get-togethers for years, seeing it as both training and a way to make sure she'll get comfortable enough with them to accept their constant presence in her life.

With Bucky's metabolism, it was only a matter of time before he started practically climbing the walls, nervous energy looking for an outlet even though he's been eating so little. Mother's actually made it her pet project to 'fatten him up' - he's arrived practically emaciated, clothes hanging off of him, the vibranium arm looking almost disproportionate to his lean frame. The kitchens' been churning out his favorites every day, but he hasn't had much of an appetite. Understandable, but not acceptable.

Well, there's always the late dinner that everybody always grabs together after these shindigs, so here's hoping exercise will jump-start his system.

Okoye actually claps her hands like an instructor to grab everybody's attention; some of the Dora snicker at that, but they start warming up anyway. Bucky seems to relax a bit into the familiar movements - this part is always more or less the same, no matter whether you're preparing to fight or dance. He keeps to the back of the room though, throwing nervous glances at Shuri once every few minutes. Ayo quickly susses out that he's getting lost with some of the more dance-oriented moves, and slows them down for him, going as far as to place his hands on her hips and ribs to show him how to isolate the movement. He's adorably confused - the fancy way they dance in America has nothing to do with isolations and everything to do with throwing their body around like the floor is lava. His Red Room ballet training does help though - he has muscle control honed by years of sweat, blood and fear. Not that he's thinking about the Red Room now - she can actually see him smiling a little bit when they speed up the move and he's able to catch up to the rest of them. Okoye's going easier on them today, knowing that she has a newbie in the room, but that doesn't mean that anything they do is _easy_. Everybody's breathing a little faster and the room smells of clean, happy sweat by now.

Shuri sidles up to him when they take a water break, quietly appraising his body language. It's the first time she's seen him break through the blank wall he's been hiding behind since he's gotten off the quinjet two weeks ago. He's taken off his shirt, his scars on clear display that none of the present warriors pay any attention to; his hair is a sweaty mess barely contained by the elastic, and his eyes...

His eyes don't look like icy wastelands anymore. They're still grey, obviously - but there's crinkles around them that she's come to know and love. Bast, she's missed him.

"Okay, okay, I know what you're waiting for. You. Were. Right," he murmurs. "Now show me this chest-lift thing that Okoye's doing, but, like, 10 times slower. Y'all gonna kill me and we haven't even finished warming up yet."

She laughs, bright and unrestrained, then does as he asks.

* * *

Three hours later Bucky's lying face-down next to her hip and mumbling incoherently as she's braiding his hair away from his face. She can see the other women smiling indulgently at them - if she's practically their baby sister, then by extension he's part of the family, too. She can tell Okoye's watching him like a hawk - three hours should be nothing for a super soldier, yet here he is, a heap of quivering muscle on the floor. He must've been neglecting the training regimen that he's established after coming out of cryo. She's not surprised, knowing what's been on his mind - but it has to change and quickly; the weapons-grade prosthetic that is his arm, grafted onto his shoulder, spine and ribs requires considerable muscle mass to support. Any leaner, and he'd have started having serious problems using the limb; he's probably been having some pain already, not that he'd admit it to anybody. Shuri meets Okoye's eyes and nods her understanding. Bucky, at least, radiates content - the exertion seems to have loosened up something that was coiled so, so tight. She thinks she won't have much trouble convincing him to come here again.

"So, the festival in three months, Shuri, you got any details for us? What's your Mother planning?" Okoye's voice breaks through the dinner chatter.

"She's saying she wants it to be a start of a new tradition, remembering this whole Purple Grape of Doom mess" - there's some laughter, they know better than to expect any sort of decorum from her - "but she doesn't want it to be a serious affair; more a celebration of opening ourselves up to the world and becoming a part of it, than a wake for those who've been lost. She's mentioned she wants there to be lots of music and dancing though, so..." Shuri trails off expectantly.

"Well, the least we could do as the royal guard of honor is to help her with that." T'Yana smirks. "It's our duty to take point when the Queen Mother expresses a wish. You up for it, Princess?"

"Like I'd miss it," Shuri scoffs. "Brother? You're practically an adopted part of the royal family, you know." He grumbles something that could be taken for assent. "Three months, you think you can keep up with us feeble maidens?"

Bucky lifts his head, looking around blearily. "I'm pretty sure I'm the most feeble thing in this room, and none of you are innocent enough to be called maidens." Shuri starts fiddling with his hair again, and he smiles blissfully, closing his eyes. "Not playing fair, Princess. What did I just agree to?"

"Let's just say Wanda's going to be very happy with you. Oooh, maybe we can invite her to train with us, what do you think?" He mutters something again, his face buried in her skirt, his arms finding their way around her waist. She chuckles. "I'll catch you up later. Sleep, I'll wake you when we have to go home."

She gestures to Ayo to hand her some iced tea and keeps one hand lightly stroking the back of his neck. He hasn't been sleeping well, so she's not surprised that he dozes off after so much exercise; the endorphins must help, too. That's okay. She's got nowhere to be that's more important than with him.


	2. Chapter 2

[June]

She drags him out of bed under the usual pretense of "If I have to get up at the crack of dawn after sciencing all night, the least you can do is accompany me!" In the month he's been here he's actually gotten used to doing the morning workouts with her, even going as far as admitting it clears his head - but today he's clearly not feeling it.

(The workouts were mandated by Okoye years ago: "Not everybody has the luxury of just getting superpowers from a magical flower, Princess, most of us actually have to earn our skills." Otherwise she'd still be in her lab, happily reinventing the laws of physics.)

He trails after her like a storm cloud, still wrapped in his favorite blanket to ward off the cold, then drops it unceremoniously to the ground with a huff and starts jumping in place, trying to warm up a bit. She doesn't say anything, knowing he'll say whatever's on his mind when he actually figures it out for himself, and starts the flow sequence she's known since she was a child. Out of the corner of her eye she sees him follow, scowling at her like he'd rather be anywhere but here.

Well, recovery is not linear. The psychiatrist that she's consulted before even bringing him back here warned her that the road is going to be long and hard. Of course, he then suggested her best bet is trying to develop a version of anti-depressants that would work on his insane metabolism, but she shot that idea down before he even finished the sentence. She knew there was no way Bucky would agree to taking any mind-altering substance after only just recovering from his short stint with psychedelic drugs mixed with hard alcohol - not to mention the chemical cocktail Hydra had him on. No, they have to do it the hard way.

She's shaken out of her zone when he yelps in frustration and lands on the ground ass-first, then fists both hands in his hair and curls into a shaking ball. Slowly she comes to sit next to him, dragging his blanket with her. "Tough night?" The only sound she gets in response is muffled sobbing that she studiously pretends not to hear. "I've worked on Nakia's ring blades all night, you know, good almost-sister-in-law that I am. I've been having this problem with the energy source, you see, they loose charge way too fast..." She works the problem out loud for a few minutes, until he visibly pulls himself together and wraps himself in his blanket despite the sun already starting to warm them. "Hey there. Better? What happened?"

"I've had a dream. Of Brooklyn," he whispers brokenly.

"Before the war?"

"Yeah, I remembered one of the dance halls that we used to go to... One night they had this line dancing event and of course I had to drag Stevie there, convincing him that 'he doesn't even need to bring a date to this one'. 'C'mon, it'll be fun,' I said. I forgot all about it until I saw it in my dream last night, me teaching him the steps and him laughing like a maniac that he was..." he trails off, looking into the distance.

"Sounds like it _was_ fun?"

"Yeah, only I've just realized how bloody obvious I must've been, looking at him like he'd hung the bloody moon. I remember one of our friends, Dolores - we called her Dot - she looked at me so funny when I asked her to dance with me later. Gave me this look like I was diseased or something. God, how many people knew about me? And how did Steve _not_ know?" he bites out.

"I think maybe he saw only-"

"You know what the worst part is?" he barrels right over her. "_I miss him_. He's left me time and time again, he's never really seen me, he's taken everything I've had and given back nothing, and I still bloody miss him. I _dream_ about him! How pathetic is that?!" His voice is hoarse.

"You've come here to get away from all that, from him, remember? Remember why we're doing this?" He nods, watching her warily. "The life you're trying to build here, the friends you're making? Your life isn't all about him anymore." He doesn't say anything, and she quickly makes a decision. "Come on, up, up!" She gets up and drags his hand until he stands up as well, looking like a disgruntled larva in his blanket cocoon. Even the hair is spot-on.

"No, what? What now?"

"We're going running, come on. You need a way to get rid of all this energy, and moving meditation obviously isn't cutting it. Come on, I bet as out of shape as you are, I actually stand a chance to keep up with you."

"But the blanket, and your ring blades thing, and-"

"Nope," - she pops the 'p', the teenager that she is - "we're going around the lake and then back to the palace, you're done moping. And Okoye will whip my ass if you don't get on top of that dance routine we're showing next week, so after we come back, we're doing that. Come on, I haven't got all day!" She knows he will take the time to fold his beloved blanket this time, so she's not surprised by his indignant squawk when she runs full sprint out of the garden, not even looking back at him. She's likewise not surprised when he catches up with her before they even leave the palace grounds. He never could resist a challenge.

Good. It just so happens that challenging people is what she's best at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, can you imagine how pissed Shuri must be about the fact that she has to work her ass off, while her brother just eats a flower once and becomes practically invincible?

**Author's Note:**

> Now that I've got you hooked: go, _go_ catch up on what you've missed, 'The Power of Five Seconds' is finished and waiting for you... and 'Time is a Metaphor' is coming out now, we've got a regular schedule with tons of fun visuals, social media and angsty action planned!
> 
> Find us on Tumblr for more stucky! We're [CrushedRose](https://acrushedrosestillwins.tumblr.com/) and [kocuria](https://kocuria.tumblr.com) :)


End file.
